Composers: Old Salt

Composer Carl Ruggles has had a writer's
block that has stretched out for nearly all of his 92 years. He toiled
for ages on a single work. Writing with crayons on brown wrapping
paper, he would trace out his python-long melodies, then weave
dissonance into dissonance, then unravel the whole thing and start
again. His long opera The Sunken Bell (1923) occupied his time for 13
years. And just when it was near completion, Ruggles threw the score
aside in a furious fit of dissatisfaction and abandoned it forever.
That helps to...